Thomson confident on Gers return

[Guest Jum Spence]

Rangers midfielder Kevin Thomson targets a first-team return after seven months on the sidelines with a knee injury.

 

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[Big Spliff 0]

piss off Chick, your card's marked.

[ian1964 10,720]

KEVIN THOMSON will fly south this morning hoping to be given the news that he's ready to start next season with a bang. Well, it'll make a nice change of pace from opening up with a crash.

 

Last summer Thomson returned to Ibrox on the back of that extraordinary journey to the UEFA Cup Final only to be floored by what now he rates as the most painful defeat of his Rangers career.

 

Turfed out of the Champions League qualifiers in utter humiliation by the rank outsiders of Kaunas - and all before the Continent's genuine big boys had even made it back off the beaches - Walter Smith and his players were plunged into full-blown crisis before the rest of Europe was even in proper pre-season.

 

The mental scars which accompanied that abject failure have taken longer to heal than the surgical wounds on his rebuilt left knee - the legacy of a horrific accident at Rugby Park which came some four months after Thomson and his team-mates had been reduced to a laughing stock in Lithuania.

 

But now that he is rehabilitated and relishing the prospect of an imminent return to the front line, Thomson looks back on last summer as one of the most important lessons yet in his relatively fledgling career.

 

"It was a hammer blow for us all at the time," Thomson nods as he thinks back to that calamity in Kaunas and to the personal savaging he received afterwards from Smith, despite scoring the away goal which looked, at one stage, to be enough to see Rangers into the next round.

 

It was the night he learned never again to rest on his laurels.

 

He grimaces slightly as he continues: "Yes, Kaunas was probably the low point in my time at the club. After reaching the UEFA Cup Final at the end of the previous season it was like coming back down to earth with a real bang.

 

"To suffer a defeat like that when you are at a club like this one it's not easy to take. I'm sure it sticks in the throats of a lot of the boys even now. It was such a poor performance from us and such a massive disappointment.

 

"But, looking back now, at least we managed to move on from that and make it a successful season.

 

"Thankfully we will go straight into the group stages this time round.

 

"That takes a wee bit of pressure off us at the start of the season and allows us to get up to speed. Fingers crossed when the group stages come around and we are in with the big hitters the boys will be at the top of their game."

 

And yet, had it not been for Kaunas then Rangers might never have made it this far along their own road to rehab.

 

In fact, Thomson recalls the blood thirsty clamour which greeted Rangers' European dismissal and pinpoints one day amidst all that madness which he now believes set the tone for what was ultimately a gritty title triumph.

 

He said: "To be honest what really sticks in my mind from that time was our first league game of the season away to Falkirk and how much pressure the boys were under going into that game.

 

"Falkirk is not an easy place to go to at the best of times but the pressure was really mounting on us and there was a lot of flak flying around.

 

"The punters had made it clear that they were unhappy because we were so poor in Kaunas and I just remember thinking we really had to start off with three points. It was a real high-pressure situation.

 

"It was such a cagey game and the pressure was immense. It would have been easy to fall into our shells and get swallowed up.

 

"But we battled our way to victory that day and I think that said something about the character in our squad. Looking back now I think that Falkirk game gave us the base from which to push on."

 

Thomson, of course, would soon be removed from the heat of the battle when, in November, his left leg buckled so awfully under the weight of Kilmarnock striker David Fernandez.

 

It's been a long road back but, at last, the finishing line is in sight.

 

A nod and a wink from his surgeon in Harley Street today and he'll have the green light to pull the boots back on and hurl himself back into the rough and tumble of a full-on pre-season.

 

It is Thomson's aim to be back at the heart of Smith's midfield, if not in time to play in each of Rangers' warm-up matches this summer, then certainly before the curtain goes up on the start of the champions' title defence.

 

And he is sharply aware also, perhaps given the lessons learned over the last 12 months, that he will not keep his place on the strength of sentiment alone.

 

Thomson said: "That's the situation you are in at a big club.You have to expect it. I'm not under any illusions.

 

"I have had some nice press since I've been out injured and that's been gratefully received but I know, if I don't hit the ground running at the start of the season, there will be some stick from certain areas.

 

"I've said all along, I am very confident in my own ability and there is no reason why I can't get back to the level I was at before the injury.

 

"It's been a long, hard challenge and now I'm just looking forward to getting back playing.

 

"If I said I was absolutely buzzing for that first challenge it would be something of an understatement."

 

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/football/spl/rangers/2009/07/01/kevin-thomson-kaunas-was-the-worst-night-of-my-rangers-career-we-ll-be-better-prepared-this-time-86908-21485598/